Since this guide was first published two years ago, there has been an explosion of human rights information on the World
Wide Web (web). Not only have
many non-government organizations (NGOs) gotten online and began publishing their materials, but international organizations
have begun to make large
portions of their materials available online, making research much easier than in the past. Academic and legal journals,
moreover, have begun to offer at least
some of their articles in the web as well. The growth of the web, however, has also meant that finding the desired materials
is likely to be more difficult for
those not already acquainted with the major human rights sites. Fortunately, most of the major sites have done a very good
job of compiling lists of links to
other sites with human rights materials, so that using them as starting points is likely to lead you to the material you seek.
Those sites and the other tools
described here should help you find you what you need.

This updated guide is an attempt to show you how to begin using the Internet to find human rights information. This guide
assumes that you already know how
to use the basic Internet tools: e-mail and the web. We will also discuss briefly the issue of privacy online. Please note
that the sites and methods discussed
here are by no means exhaustive; in addition, given the nature of the Internet, this guide was out-of-date even before we
finished writing it.

It is important to understand that while there is a lot of human rights information on the Internet, it only constitutes a
small fraction of the information available
in the "real world." This means that you will not necessarily find what you are looking for; it may just not be there. Use
the Internet as a way to supplement
your library or field research, but don't expect to be able to use it as your sole source of information.

Note: This is a "live" document, and minor changes are made when necessary.

Where on the Internet?

The Internet has multiple "spaces" where information is stored and exchanged. In addition to the web, there are
mailing lists, where people can exchange
information and ideas via e-mail, newsgroups, bulletin-boards accessible to everyone with full-Internet
access where useful information and people are
sometimes available, chat rooms, where you can meet with friends to discuss issues or drop in to ask
questions, and telnet, which provides access to library
catalogs and other databases. In addition, much information is still available at ftp (file transfer
protocol) and gopher sites; because you can access these sites
with most web browsers (software such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, and Opera, which is used to access the web),
we will not discuss these sites
independently.

As a general guide, we would recommend that you first look at what's available on the web, or what has been discussed on
newsgroups or mailing lists (you can
get the archives of many of these on the web as well), before posing questions to either newsgroups or mailing lists -
especially about very common subjects.

HR Info on the Web

I. What is out there?

Among the most common human rights documents online are treaties and conventions, reports on human rights violations on
specific countries, death penalty
information, human rights news and actions on behalf of victims of human rights violations. You can also find decisions and
reports by international bodies
and tribunals, national legislation and jurisprudence, articles on human rights issues, and issue-specific information (e.g.
women's rights, indigenous people's
rights). Perhaps surprisingly, there is very little information or discussions as to what human rights are, or other
introductory materials to human rights and
human rights law. Academic and legal articles on human rights issues have become more common, but are still comparatively
rare.

Most of the human rights material available on line is a few years old at most. Reports and information prior to the
mid-90s are often hard to find. The UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights' (UNHCHR) website, for example, has few reports earlier than 1993; Amnesty International's
materials mostly date
from 1996. On the other hand, the latest human rights information is often not available on the web either (though it may
have been distributed through mailing
lists), as few organizations have the resources necessary to immediately place all new information on their sites.

II.How to find it.

This guide will lead you to many of the most useful human rights sites online, but, as said before, they are not the only
ones available, and possibly not the ones
you need either. If the information you're looking for does not appear here, here are a few things you can do:

-Go to a site that contains information similar to what you are looking for, and look for a section labeled links. Links
are graphics or highlighted text that will
connect you to another document or website when you click on it. Most sites will link to others containing similar
material.

-Look at a general index of human rights information. There are many of these available; some are discussed below.

-Use a search engine to find it (also discussed below). Depending on your familiarity with these, this may be the most
effective option.

-Ask if the information exists by posting a a message in a newsgroup related to that subject. If this is not successful,
you can try a mailing list.

III. The Websites

A. General Websites

These are sites that offer a variety of human rights information and can serve as starting points in your search.

Our own website offers a variety of human rights information including reports on human rights violations, actions, links
and documents. Information is
organized by country and by issue; an index and a search engine allow for easy finding of materials. Derechos includes an
online-journal of human rights, a
periodic newsletter, opportunities for joining human rights mailing lists and a very extensive list of links to other human
rights sites. There is a focus on Latin
America, and many of these documents are only available in Spanish. Derechos also hosts a number of human rights
organizations at its site. Information and
reports are added to the site daily.

Another premier human rights site, the Human Rights Library has been a pioneer in human rights on the Internet. Its focus
is on international materials and
contains treaties, declarations, resolutions, opinions and decisions from international tribunals and treaty bodies. The
Human Rights Library contain decisions
from UN human rights bodies in individual cases that are not available at the UNHCHR site, and the decisions from the
Inter-American Court of human rights that are not yet available elsewhere. The site is also a great resource for reference
materials on human rights in Africa,
human rights in the US, asylum issues,
humanitarian law, peace issues, and human rights education. There is an excellent list of links to other sites. For more
info see our review of the site in the July
'98 issue of Without Impunity. (http://www.derechos.org/wi/2/min.html)

An "international NGO, documentation center and publishing house", Human Rights Internet is an established powerhouse in
international human rights but a
relatively newcomer to the Internet. It has made up by having one of the most useful websites which is constantly being
expanded and updated. The website is
most useful for human rights NGOs and professionals. It contains articles and documents of use to human rights professionals
(e.g. a Journalist Handbook on
Reporting Human Rights and Humanitarian Stories), a useful section on human rights education including lists of human rights
programs and syllabi, a job
board and a calendar of human rights conferences and events. The site also contains copious information on children's rights
and UN human rights information,
including the 1997 For the Record, a searchable summary of the activities of all the UN human rights bodies. Human
Rights Internet also offers current urgent
actions, online discussion fora, fee-based databases and an extensive list of links to other human rights sites (searchable by
keyword, these include short
summaries of what the sites are about).

B. International Materials

The web can be at its most useful for finding human rights material issued by different human rights bodies of the UN, the
Organization of American States
(OAS) and the European Council. Bear in mind that most of the material available only dates back a few years.

United Nations

In addition to the sites below, check out the info available at the Human Rights Library and Human Rights Internet
discussed above.

Since its inauguration on Human Rights Day 1996, this site has been the crown jewel of human rights on the Internet. The
UNHCHR website contains a large
part of the material produced by the different UN human rights bodies. Here you can find resolutions and reports by the UN
Commission and Subcommission,
the special rapporteurs and working groups and the treaty monitoring bodies (few documents earlier than 1993 are available
however). You can also find the
state party reports to the treaty bodies, which allows a glance at how countries see their own human rights situation. The
website also contains the latest press
releases by the UNHCHR and other human rights bodies and information on the structure of the UN system of human rights
protection. You can also find the
most important UN declarations and covenants on human rights and copies of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in many
languages. A major failing
of the site - which is unlikely to be resolved soon given the nature of the UN - is its lack of links to other human rights
sites. However, its links to other UN or
international bodies are very useful. The site is currently available in English, French and Spanish (though most materials
are still only available in English),
and is constantly improving. For some hints on how to use it see our review of the site in the June '98 issue of Without
Impunity
(http://www.derechos.org/wi/1/a.html )

While most of the relevant UN human rights information is available at the UNHCHR site above, the UN site has some useful
features. It contains all treaties
in the UN Treaty Series, including those that are not per se on human rights but that might be relevant to your work, as well
as information on the ratification of
all treaties deposited with the UN. Access to the information requires registration, which was free at the time this document
was published. There is a useful
guide to UN documents, information on the Rwanda and Bosnia War Crimes Tribunals (including documents related to them), the
International Criminal Court,
and the UN monitoring missions in Guatemala and Haiti.

Information pertaining to refugee and asylum matters, including treaties, national legislation and case law, background
papers, country reports and news. The
website includes copies of the UNHCR magazine "Refugee", materials and lesson plans for use in the classroom, and even an
online documentary. Much of the
documentation is under the "Refworld" section of the website.

The OAS website has very scant human rights material, but with some effort you can find the Inter-American human rights
covenants and resolutions. These are
also available at the IACHR site so there is not much reason to come here.

This year-old site contains the full text of the Commission reports since 1991 and some of its country reports. The site
also includes the basic documents of the
Inter-American system of human rights, including the statutes and regulations of the Commission and the Court. Some press
releases are also available.

The IACTHR has just opened its website and still contains only limited information: some rulings of the Court and some of
the documents and oral arguments presented to the Court. However, the site promises that more information will be added.
Meanwhile check the Minnesota
Human Rights Library site below for decisions of the court until 1996.

This website contains the basic documents of the European system, full text of judgements of the Court since 1996
(organized by date), and a list of pending
cases and scheduled hearings. The website lacks a search engine which makes searching through the cases painful.

News and reports on human rights violations on many countries are widely available online. News can often be found in the
form of press releases or
newspaper/wire articles, and will be discussed below. Reports tend to be longer, either look at the human rights situation in
a country comprehensively, or
cover one aspect of violations very thoroughly. Most reports that you can find online are written by international or
national human rights groups. The US
State Department also offers comprehensive human rights reports on all nations, save the US. Other information relevant to
your search - such as national laws,
government authorities and economic conditions are increasingly available online as well, often from government sources.

We have created "country pages" for most countries in the Americas, the Middle East and Asia, as well as some countries in
Europe and Africa. Each page
contains links to reports, urgent action and news on human rights issues by both international and national bodies. Links are
also available to legal material,
national newspapers and other sites with human rights information for each country. This should be the first place for you to
start if you are looking for human
rights information for a specific country.

These Guides provide information about Internet resources on conflict and ethnicity specific to particular countries and
regions. Guides are available for
selected countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Colombia.

Human Rights Reports

The sites below have reports on many different countries. Please be aware that the quality, accuracy and political slant
of the reports may vary. For other
reports on specific countries check the country pages mentioned above or look for websites of NGOs working on that country.
For reports on an specific issue
(e.g. freedom of expression, women's rights) within a country, please check the Human Rights Issues category below.

Note that the web address for the reports has changed often; if not available at this address, go to http://www.state.gov/ and follow the appropriate links. The
US State Department reports have become a very good source of human rights information in recent years. In general, they are
objective and report accurately
on the human rights violations denounced by local human rights NGOs. In addition to civil and political rights, the reports
include information about economic
and cultural rights, which make them more thorough than most human rights reports.

Human Rights Watch has only published a few of its report online; you can try to find those by going to their site at http://www.hrw.org/ - the annual report
contains summaries of the human rights situation in many countries around the world.

With some diligence, you can find the codes of many countries and even judicial decisions and doctrine in some cases. The
availability of legal materials,
however, varies considerably by country. Be advised that these documents are often fleeting - the web addresses for these
sites change frequently or are taken
offline - and often in the language of the country. We cannot begin to list here all the websites where you can find legal
materials, so instead we highlight some
of the main sites and tools that you can use to find them.

Information on human rights subjects and issues is generally more difficult to find online. NGOs that work for specific
issues such as children's or women's
rights often have websites online. However other issues (e.g. impunity, social and economic rights, etc.) are less well
covered and you may have to search
within the websites of general human rights NGOs for relevant material. In additions to these, please remember that many
international bodies have issued
thematic reports and opinions, which you can find at the UNHCHR site. You can also find information about these subjects
within country or region specific
sites and reports. Look for links to other sites in general human rights indexes as well. Here are some sites that can help
you get started. For others, check the
links they offer or look at the Issues and Topics page below.

There are literally hundreds of news sources on line. These include newspapers, magazines, wire services, radio
programs, bulletins, newsletters and more.
In addition, NGOs issue press releases that are often posted at their websites. You are likely to be able to find some news
source from whatever country you are
researching. Human rights actions can also provide you with news information about what's happening in the country in
question.

Properly used search engines may be your quickest way towards human rights information. They are best used for searches for
specific information; for best
results limit your search through the use of search operators. For hints on how search engines work and how to make the best
use of them, check out Find It! -
Search Engine Tips (Without Impunity, June 1998 - http://www.derechos.org/wi/1/c.html)

Mailing lists come in two main types: distribution lists, which are used to distribute information, such as news or press
releases, and discussion lists, which are
used to exchange information and ideas among participants. Mailing lists deliver information to you via e-mail. In order for
you to receive information from a
mailing list, you will need to subscribe (or join) the list. Subscribing to a list is almost always free and consists of
sending an e-mail message to a specific
address. It is important to realize that whichever type of list you subscribe to probably will send more information than you
care for. Other subscribers may be
interested in other types of information than you are. You usually cannot ask the person who administers the list to send
only the kind of information that you
want. For discussion lists, you must also understand what kind of messages are proper to post, and which are not. The
original message that you received at the
beginning of your subscription to the list will probably tell you about the purpose of the list and the kinds of discussions
you can anticipate. If it doesn't, try to
get an idea of the rhythm of the list by reading the messages sent to it for several days before posting. Do not send messages
that are off topic or add little to the
discussion (e.g. me too). Also, make sure you keep the original message(s) you received when you subscribed to the list, so
that you know how to unsubscribe
when the moment comes. Improperly sending unsubscribe requests is annoying for all the members of the list.

Mailing lists can be a particularly useful means to get answers to simple (or even complicated) questions. Most people on
mailing lists are very nice, and want
to help you. However, please understand that often times your questions or comments will be met with silence.

Listing all the mailing lists available online would take a long time, and is beyond the scope of this guide. However, you
can find lists of human right mailing
lists in:

Searchable archive of a number of mailing lists, including some human rights ones.

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are bulletin-board-like fora, where people from all over the world meet to discuss issues, have fun, etc. There
are newsgroups for almost any topic,
and several for human rights issues. Be aware, though, that not everyone has access to newsgroups (this is specially true in
third world countries), and that for
some reason newsgroup discussions tend to degenerate into flame wars much faster than mailing list discussions. In order to
access newsgroups you need a
newsreader. Most browsers, such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, and Opera, are now equipped with one.

DejaNews offers a vey useful website which allows you to search a huge archive of messages posted to newsgroups at http://www.dejanews.com/

Even more flame-war oriented, but covering more issues than just human rights.

-soc.culture.xxx where xxx is the name of a country or geographical region

There are newsgroups for many countries, where people either from those countries or interested on those cultures
congregate. They can be very useful for
obtaining news and information about the country in question.

-esp.soc.derechos-humanos

Spanish language newsgroups where Derechos posts many of its news releases

Chat Rooms

Chat rooms, virtual spaces where you can converse in real time with people from any part of the world, are a universe to
themselves and beyond the scope of
this guide. In general, chat rooms are mostly social in nature, though there may be used to schedule talks or conferences in
human rights issues. They are
useful, however, as a place to get instant information of a general nature. If you've heard a rumor that there has been a
coup in Uruguay, for example, a quick
visit to an Uruguayan chat room can put you in touch with someone in that country that may be able to tell you right away
what's going on. Contact your
Internet provider to determine whether you have access to chat rooms.

Privacy

When using the Internet to do human rights work, you should keep in mind that all online un-encrypted communications can be
easily intercepted. This
includes mischievous teenagers with time and know-how and members of the intelligence services of any country of your choice.
If you want to communicate
privately you must use encryption. The most common type of encryption software available is Pretty Good Privacy or PGP - a
program freely available online
from http://www.pgpi.com/ While it is illegal in the United States and other
countries to export strong encryption technology (i.e. give a copy of PGP to a
foreign colleague and you are risking several years in jail), it is usually legal to use it (at least outside of France and
Russia) - and we very much urge you to do
so. You can find more information about PGP and why you should use it in the July '98 issue of Without Impunity (http://www.derechos.org/wi/2/online.html).